“Alice,” said Alice, doing her best not to stare past the boy at the huge figure of the wolf. “But who are you?”

“I’m . . . I’m Ev—” He stopped, and his brow furrowed, as though with considerable mental effort. “Jacob. I’m Jacob.”

“Jacob.” Alice’s eyes went wide. “You’re Esau’s apprentice?”

“Yes. Or I was. Until I killed him.” Jacob gave a sad little giggle.

“But we’ve come to find you!” Alice said. “You can come back with us. We’ll all get out of here.”

“I’d like—” Jacob stopped, eyes bulging. His throat worked, as if he were choking.

“You’ve come here to kill him, you mean,” said another, much deeper voice. The wolf padded forward a step. It was big enough to look down at Alice. “Or drag him to your masters, which amounts to the same thing.”

“I . . .” Alice couldn’t exactly deny that. “If you can explain, it might help.”

“I didn’t want to do it,” Jacob said with sudden vehemence. “I couldn’t help it. I didn’t have a choice—”

“That’s about enough out of you,” the wolf interrupted. Jacob stopped speaking immediately, as if he’d been gagged. “I apologize for his gibbering. Do you know who I am, girl?”

Jacob’s eyes were desperate and pleading. Alice looked away from him with an effort to stare up at the wolf.

“I can guess,” she said. “You’re Torment. Esau’s labyrinthine, the guardian of this labyrinth.”

“I see my sister Ending has explained a bit,” Torment said. “She’s also told me a good deal about you. I wanted to get a look at you in the flesh.”

Alice drew herself up a little taller and took a deep breath. “If she’s told you so much about me, she must have mentioned that my name is Alice, not girl. And I don’t appreciate being stared at like a zoo exhibit.”

Torment chuckled, a deep, wet sound. “I see she was not exaggerating about you.”

“Now that you’ve gotten your look, what do you want with us? Are you going to keep leading us around in circles?”

“It has been amusing, I must say. Your struggle is pointless, but you’re so persistent. I would love to drag this out for days. How long would you keep trying? Until there were four of you left? Three? Two?” He leaned closer, until Alice could feel the hot wind of his breath. His eyes were huge, blue-fringed pools. “One? All alone in the dark?”

“That’s not going to happen.”

He chuckled again. “I can smell your fear, girl. Don’t worry. You’re perfectly safe. As for the others, it’s past time I disposed of them. A pity to end things so soon, but, as you humans say, needs must.”

“I’m not going to let you hurt them,” Alice said. Her voice rose. “I’m not!”